Weapon mounted light on a handgun?

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It's definitely worth having on an HD gun. The counter-arguments have been thoroughly debunked. Carry a second handheld flashlight if you want, but there's no good reason not to have one mounted on your weapon.

It may not be feasible for non-HD handguns on the other hand. It's hard to find a good holster for light-bearing guns.
 
Only seen one CC holster manufacturer that makes a pistol with light IWB holster - Raven Concealment. With that said, having fired a lot of rounds with both a handheld light and a pistol or rifle mounted light, I prefer to have one mounted. I respectfully disagree with Scaatylobo - keep your finger off the trigger and you won't shoot anyone while using the light.
 
My primary light is hand-held. The WML, if present, is a secondary or tertiary light.

Indirect lighting is indeed possible with a WML, or any light. I have used indirect lighting hundreds or thousands of times.

As for pointing guns at folks, if a person is approaching me in a potentially threatening manner, in low light, or is where nobody should legitimately be, I am indeed willing to destroy him if necessary, but would rather not, and a WML allows me to evaluate the threat while keeping both hands on the weapon.
 
Not on a pistol, it just feels too bulky. Plus, I like having a small laser on my pistol and handling the flash light manually I takes a little practice, but I feel more secure as to where I wish to point either one at any given time.
 
If there's an intruder in my house that I suspect is a likely threat the four rules, while still important, will be taking a back seat to survival. If you come into my house, unannounced, late at night, and you don't get turned into a midnight snack for my Doberman, you should expect to get swept with a muzzle anyways.


And as has been said, quality weapon lights are massively bright (150 lumens is on the low side these days) and have a large flood/spill. You can illuminate a target with the gun basically at a low ready position.

Also, features like momentary on and strobe mininize the ability of a BG to use your light as a target.
 
My HD gun is an M&P 9 with a TLR-1 weapon mounted light. I also have a hand held that sits right next to the gun.

I like to have both.
 
I'm a light guy. Remember there are several conditions you can carry your firearm. Since I keep my gun on the headboard it's in condition 2, rounds in the mag and none in the chamber. If I were to have to get up in the night will grab the gun investigate. Will be using #1 verbal since I have a daughter living at home. #2 I also have 4 dogs in the house. If the big dog starts going nuts after the door opens then a round will go into battery.

Anyhow if I had to figure out how to hold the light, hold the gun, and then if I had to fire. Heck it would be way too complicated while fully awake let alone half asleep. I also want to have a quality light to positively light my target.
 
Police One

If any care to look and see they might be wrong,take a look at PoliceOne site as they have noted incidents that were attributed to lights on guns and AD's.

But do as y'all please as will I.

I am sure everyone is so well trained that they never violate the finger on trigger.

But when I taught LEO's and saw HUNDREDS of men and women violate that too many times to log = well I am sure your all much better trained and went to an academy where you spent 2 weeks doing nothing but handgun training.

If you have actually been under EXTREME duress WITH a gun in hand and are positive of trigger/finger control [ actual pictures ] then I will admit your good to go.

Otherwise I will stick with the belief [ from observation ] that under stress most POINT THE GUN AT THE POSSIBLE target .

I have a few hundred hours as both student and op-for and I am of the belief that many are more confident than their actual abilitys show.

I will hope none here find out if I am correct.
 
Found one

I am SURE some will pick apart this ACTUAL accidental shooting that involved a light mounted handgun = and I am also sure none of you could have such an accident.

Just as I am sure that I do not use a light mounted gun as I could make a mistake and do not need to add to a HIGHLY sensitive moment.




The shooting of an innocent, unarmed elderly Bronx man by a cop who was trying to turn on a pistol-mounted flashlight is at least the second accidental police shooting in the US involving that same flashlight model.

But unlike Saturday’s shooting of 76-year-old Jose Colon — who survived a cop’s bullet to the stomach — an unarmed Texas man died Oct. 13 under what reportedly were strikingly similar circumstances involving the Surefire X300 flashlight.

The family of that dead man, suspected drug dealer Michael Anthony Alcala, is now suing the city of Plano for negligence in the shooting, where a cop claimed he inadvertently fired instead of turning on the flashlight as intended.

A New York firearms expert yesterday criticized the use of pistol-mounted flashlights, saying they complicate what is already a stressful situation for cops pointing guns.

"A handgun should be a handgun, and a flashlight should be a flashlight," said firearms instructor Kenneth Cooper, who was an expert witness for one of the NYPD officers acquitted for the 1999 shooting of unarmed Bronx man Amadou Diallou.

"When you put a flashlight on a weapon system, there are numerous things that you have to manipulate, and under stress, things are more difficult," Cooper said. "I don’t like flashlights on guns, I never did. I personally don’t see the necessity . . . a flashlight to me is an unnecessary hazard."

Derek McDonald, Surefire’s vice president of marketing, said the Plano shooting was the first time time the company had heard a claim that one of its flashlights played a role in a cop firing his gun accidentally until The Post notified him of the Colon case. McDonald also noted that Surefire has sold such products since the late 1980s.

"Our product is safe, has been proven safe," McDonald said. "Used in a safe manner, it doesn’t lead to accidents. It prevents misidentification and saves police lives."

Colon was shot during a drug raid early Saturday in his Soundview apartment when Emergency Services Officer Andrew McCormack tried to turn on the Surefire X300 flashlight mounted underneath the barrel of his Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, and instead pulled the gun’s trigger, sources said.

The light is turned on by pushing one of two switches in front of the trigger guard.

Colon was unarmed and not charged with a crime. But cops busted his 41-year-old son, Alberto, for heroin possession.

The elderly Colon, who once worked for state Sen. Ruben Diaz as a supervisor in a home-attendant program, was recovering yesterday in Jacobi Hospital, where he had been visited Saturday by both Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. Kelly had no immediate comment when asked whether the NYPD will continue using the weapon.

In the Texas case, an undercover narcotics police sergeant drew his pistol on drug suspect Alcala in a dark parking lot on Oct. 13, and tried to turn on his Surefire X300 flashlight on, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News.

But instead of turning on the light, the cop accidentally fired the gun, killing Alcala.

Plano police have said they don’t believe the flashlight was a problem



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/...d_before_idVqywoSeilX8BauI38OJN#ixzz1N7VkcM9R
 
"at least the second accidental police shooting"

Wow, it's happened at least twice. Looks like it's time to ban weapon lights and end the insanity!
 
scaatylobo - come on dude, simmer down. Though I appreciate your input, claiming that you are 100% right in a world that is proliferated with weapon mounted lighting systems is a little too passionate. There are soo many things that can and do go wrong in criminal situations that ALL things are bound to happen at some point in time.

Thanks for the article ... I did enjoy the read and I do appreciate your view.
 
OK, so consider my input dropped.

BUT in a "world full" of weapon mounted lights I bet that most are owned and NOT USED by civilians that saw them and liked them.

And maybe even took a few shots with them [ bet MOST didnt ].

I stand by the fact that pointing a gun at a NON shoot item or target,and PRETENDING that you actually didnt aim at it = but were just "lighting the area" is a game that I dont play.
 
Hi Scatty, welcome to THR. You come from Knifeforums?

I value your insight and opinion. I'm sure you have tons of real world experience. Thanks for your input.
 
A streamlite M3 works nicely on my Glock 23 and inside 20 feet the shot placement is in the center of the light beam.
 
If you have to point the light at the intruder or whoever to see then your light sucks. I just prefer weapon mounted. If you prefer of hand that's also fine just don't try to push that one way is better than the other because the year is 2010 and they make very bright weapon mounted lights so you Do Not have to break any safety rules or point the gun at anybody.
 
@ msparks

Thanks but the real 'combat' veterans here dont believe the truth.

they believe what they THINK they can do with NO reality based training to back it.

I am sad that there are so many that "know" so much.
 
I have lights mounted on my defensive handguns. I also have handheld lights available.

I've done some low-light judgmental training with a handheld light and then again with a weapon-mounted light, and that was more than enough to convince me that the weapon-mounted light is the superior system.

There is the possibility, of course, of covering a good guy with a weapon-mounted light. This should not be taken lightly, pun most certainly intended. Of course, if you use the common Harries or Rogers techniques with a handheld flashlight, you'll be pointing the flashlight and pistol in the same direction, and will thus cover anyone you put the light on... If you use the old FBI technique (my preferred technique if I don't have a WML) you can avoid the Rule #2 problem, but consider - the situation is bad enough that you have your gun out. Do you really want your eyes and your gun pointing in different directions?

-C
 
It's interesting that people can drive a car almost without thinking, and yet we're to believe they're incapable of properly operating a handgun with more a couple controls on it.
 
On longguns I do, on handguns I do not. For one reason mainly, backup weapon. I still use c and d cell maglights for that. A handgun is still a mechanical device and mechanical devices can fail no matter how reliable they are supposed to be. Same goes for ammo. So if either fails I have a decent striking weapon handy. Just my way of doin things.

Happy shooting.
 
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